Maynard, MA, USA: Beacon-Villager newspaper column on local history, observations on nature and recreational activities, plus an occasional health-related article. Columns from 2009-11 collected into book "MAYNARD: History and Life Outdoors." Columns from 2012-14 collected into book "Hidden History of Maynard." - David A. Mark

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Thursday, March 2, 2017

Shrinking Stow - Part Three

Last week's column glossed over some of the interesting
details that brought William Knight and Amory Maynard to AssabetVillage,
and years later lead to the creation of Maynard. History has it that Knight and
Maynard starting buying land on both sides of the river circa 1846 with intent
to build a dam and canal (1846) and a carpet mill (1847).

We know for a fact that Knight sold his water rights to Long
Pond (later renamed LakeCochituate) to Boston
on March 30, 1846, and Maynard his rights to Fort Meadow Reservoir circa 1847.
However, a careful perusal of Sudbury town
records, thankfully transcribed and posted by the Sudbury Historical Society,
identifies William Knight as active in Sudbury
affairs as early as 1843. This means that Knight and Maynard as partners were
planning to relocate years before finally being bought out from their existing
operations in, respectively, Framingham and Marlborough. What may
have sent them searching was that for years it was clear that Boston
desperately needed more water, and was looking west for solutions.

Border stone north of the Assabet River with
"A" for Acton on the west side. Click on
any photo to enlarge.

What was found in Sudbury's
records were the minutes of a Town Meeting, April 1843, with a vote that the
Selectmen oppose a road petitioned by William H. Knight and others. Apparently,
Knight (and Maynard) were already buying up water privileges for the AssabetRiver and land on both sides of the
river. What Knight wanted the town to pay for was a road next to his intended
factory site, to be able to bring wool in and finished carpet out. Knight tried
again in 1844, and then in 1846 submitted a petition to shift the boundary
southwards so that all of the property would be in Stow. The petition was seconded by the town
of Stow, ostensibly to straighten the borderline
and enlarge the smallest of Stow's
school districts. Sudbury
opposed the action. Sudbury
won this battle, but ceded the war when it went ahead and built the road and
bridge over the river (now Main
Street, Maynard), in 1849.

As for the 1871
creation of Maynard, aka Assabet Village, Stow created a committee, naming F.B.
Warren, Henry Gates, Jonathan Priest, B.W. Gleason and Francis Tuttle to
negotiate. According to their reports, the Assabet committee failed to show at
the first scheduled meeting. At the second meeting the Assabet people took the
position they the new town would be taking on debt associated with the land, so
Stow should pay
them to secede. This "...did not receive much favor from your [Stow's] committee."
The next proposal from Assabet is that it wanted a larger part of Stow than initially proposed,
no payment. Stow counter-proposed that it did
not want the new town to be created, but if it were to happen, less land and Stow to get $15,000.

Maynard side has a "S" because the stone
dates to when this side was Stow

These two groups not reaching an amicable agreement, on
January 26, 1871, residents of AssabetVillage submitted
official petition to the state Legislature, with name "Maynard"
written in on a space that had been left blank, and proposed boundaries. This
is referred to as the Henry Fowler Petition. In February and March 1871 Stow residents submitted
three petitions against - a total of 136 signatures. Preamble from one
petition:

"The undersigned legal voters of the Town of Stow
respectfully and urgently remonstrate against having our small town divided for
the purpose of forming a new town as prayed for by the petition of Henry Fowler
and others, taking as it is proposed about one half of our population and more
than a third part of the valuation, it would leave our ancient town in a weak
and crippled condition to which we most decidedly object."

Sudbury
also opposed formation of the new town. Regardless, Maynard was created on
April 19, 1871. The boundaries were smaller than what the residents of AssabetVillage has wanted. Stow ended up being paid $6,500 (plus
interest) over seven years. Stow
gave up approximately 1300 acres and 800 people (out of 1,800). What went was
everything north of the AssabetRiver plus a long
triangle of land south of the river. Sudbury
gave up 1900 acres - including the mill and the railroad - and 1,000 people
(out of 2,100), and received $20,883.28. As late as 1950 the population of
Maynard was larger than Stow and Sudbury combined.

A final note: the aqueduct from LakeCochituate to Boston was completed in 1848. On October 25th
of that year a great celebration was held in Boston Common, with an estimated
100,000 people attending. The great day began with a 100-gun salute and an immense
parade through the city, ending near Frog Pond, in the Common. Mayor Quincy
gave a speech, at the end of which he asked if the people of Boston were ready for Cochituate water.
"The crowd roared, the gates opened, and a fountain of water 80 feet high
burst into the air." Cochituate was in service until 1951, supplemented
and finally superseded by Wachusett (operative 1908) and Quabbin (operative 1946) reservoirs. Boston had also bought Amory Maynard's Fort Meadow Pond,
but never connected it to the aqueduct, and in time sold it back to Amory to
add to his water privileges on the AssabetRiver.

LITERATURE

Butler,
Caleb. History of the Town of Groton, Including Pepperell and Shirley.Boston,MA:
T.R. Marvin, 1848.

Chandler,
Seth.History of the town ofShirley,Massachusetts,
from its early settlement to A.D. 1882.Town
of Shirley,MA.
1883.

Gutteridge,
William H.A Brief History of
the Town ofMaynard,Massachusetts.Maynard,MA:
Town ofMaynard,
1921.